Fifteen top-3 overall finish for Movistar Team at home Grand Tour

Spaniard 2nd to Evenepoel (QST), visits podium for third time, sees setbacks from challenging 2022 season finally paid back. Alejandro paid tribute in Madrid before last races as a pro.

The 77th edition of La Vuelta came to its close on Sunday with the overall victory of Remco Evenepoel (QST) ahead of Enric Mas (Movistar Team), who showed over the three weeks of racing what could arguably be defined as his best level as a pro. The Spaniard visited the final podium (2nd) in Madrid’s Cibeles square after showing his most courageous version yet and coming close quite a few times to a stage win -2nd atop Hoya de la Mora and Piornal; 3rd in Laguardia and Pico Jano-, proving he’s on track for full recovery after crashes and setbacks that overshadowed, physically and mentally, most of his 2022 season.

The circuit along the Spanish capital’s main avenues witnessed the last tribute on Spanish roads for Alejandro Valverde. The winner of the 2009 La Vuelta received the support from their fellow countrymen and the whole cycling family before saying goodbye to the pro scene in October with his last few classics in Italy. His support to Mas was as crucial as the one offered, from the very start in Utrecht, by Rojas, Oliveira, Lluís Mas, Norsgaard, Mühlberger and Carlos Verona.

It’s the 15th time the Movistar Team climbs onto the podium of La Vuelta -the third in four years-, showing again the respect and ambition the Abarca Sports organisation always tackles their home Grand Tour with. 2023, and their 44th consecutive appearance, already loom in the horizon.

OVERVIEW:

Enric Mas: “First of all, I’d like to thank all people who have been by my side in challenging times like the ones I went through over the last few months. The people who have worked with me to fix them, my wife, my family, the whole team and all fans who were there at all times. As I said yesterday, coming from the place we came 45 days ago, making the La Vuelta podium is something so beautiful for me and the whole Movistar Team. We always went day-by-day, with serenity, tackling one stage at a time. Actually, the only day I had fully tackled and put my eyes on beforehand was the final mountain stage in the Sierra de Guadarrama, where we didn’t, sadly, have the legs to try it. But this is cycling for you – sometimes you do well, sometimes you don’t. Happily, in this Vuelta things turned out pretty well, and I can only be thankful for that. Tirreno, Itzulia, Dauphiné, TDF – every single one of them had brought crashes or setbacks, and finishing my stagerace season like this is so exciting, and gives me hope for the future.”

Alejandro Valverde: “It’s been a Vuelta full of emotions for me. It’s not a day’s emotion like the one you feel with a victory, which is more an instantaneous thing, an explosion, but a long-standing emotion which I’ve been enjoying every day, so, so much. I want to thank everybody for their support over the last three weeks, and La Vuelta, for everything that it’s given to me. I will surely come back, even if not as a rider. I’m going to enjoy so much with everything I’ve received and achieved, and I’ll support the team to the fullest. However, there’s still some races left in the season and my career. I’ll be competing in Italy during the month of October, planning to end at Il Lombardia.”